01
Research & essays
Luxembourg Research Academy
Paper in development
A new research paper, followed by a four-part series translating the findings for a wider audience.
Professor · Researcher · Entrepreneur
Ted
Zoller
Rediscovering our Gumption, and the entrepreneur in all of us.
T.W. Lewis Distinguished Scholar and Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, UNC Kenan-Flagler
A career spent asking
Who gets to be called an entrepreneur, and what becomes possible when more people do?
Meet Ted
Ideas tested
in the world.
Ted Zoller is T.W. Lewis Distinguished Scholar and Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship at UNC Kenan-Flagler, and Visiting Professor at the University of Luxembourg, where he served as a Fulbright Scholar.
25+ years
studying how entrepreneurs learn, connect, and grow
15 years
leading UNC Kenan-Flagler’s Entrepreneurship Center
2025
Karl Vesper Pioneer Award recipient
From academia, to venture funds and ecosystem projects, Ted has left a lasting impact on numerous groups across the entrepreneurial space. To name just a few, Ted directed the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Kenan-Flagler for 15 years, served as Executive Director of the Carolina Angel Network, and is Past President of USASBE. He has been a Vice President and senior fellow at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, and is a senior fellow at the Global Federation of Competitiveness Councils and the Global Entrepreneurship Network.
His research focuses on high-performance entrepreneurial ecosystems and the dealmaking networks behind them, work he helped put into practice with the Blackstone Entrepreneurs Network and as an advisor to national ecosystem programs in Austria, Denmark and Iceland. He is an active entrepreneur and angel investor, and has taught at UNC since 1998.
He holds a PhD from UNC-Chapel Hill, master's degrees from Syracuse University's Maxwell School and the University of Virginia, and a bachelor's degree from the College of William & Mary.
On Ted’s desk
Current work
Research, writing, and fieldwork exploring how entrepreneurship is learned, supported, and made more widely available.
02
Entrepreneurship education
Concurrent engineering
Conference paper · Due November
A conference paper exploring new approaches to how entrepreneurship is taught, with a pedagogy journal in view.
03
Entrepreneurial ecosystems
Dealmakers & rainmakers
Research underway
Continuing research into the people and relationships that help regional entrepreneurial communities flourish.
A book in progress
Rediscovering Our Gumption: Revealing the True Essence of Entrepreneurism
Gumption.
Not a personality type. Not a pedigree. The decision to act with courage and determination.
“Gumption is an amalgam, a kind of magical stew of courage, tenacity, enterprise, ingenuity and savvy.”
The celebrated founder story is too narrow. Ted’s work turns our attention toward the entrepreneur next door: the teacher, public servant, community builder, small-business owner, student, and overlooked founder who sees what could be better, and begins.
A wider definition of entrepreneur, focused not only on those already raising their hands, but on those not yet included.
Thought leadership
Selected publications
Expected 2027
Gumption
Book proposal accepted by Columbia University Press, on entrepreneurial intention and the decision to begin a new venture.
2019
Entrepreneurial ecosystems and social network centrality: the power of regional dealmakers
This research explores the impact of “dealmakers” who are actors that have founded, managed, or invested in multiple private entrepreneurial firms, and hold concurrent equity ties to multiple firms. With Thomas G. Pittz and Rebecca White. Small Business Economics.
2015
The Economic Value of Local Social Networks
With Tom Kemeny, Maryann Feldman and Frank Ethridge. Journal of Economic Geography.
Service to the field
Leadership roles
- GCECChair
- USASBEPast President
- GENSenior Fellow
- GFCCSenior Fellow
- FulbrightFulbright Specialist / Scholar
- Uni.luVisiting Professor
Awards & recognition
Recent honors
2025
Karl Vesper Pioneer Award
University of Notre Dame
2019
Legacy Award
Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers
2019
Justin G. Longenecker Fellow
USASBE
From ideas to action
The work continues through CommonWeal.
CommonWeal Labs asks who entrepreneurship is for and how it can be taught. CommonWeal helps founders put that learning into practice.
Built around Ted’s 6M Venture Circuit, CommonWeal gives founders and cohorts a practical way to examine Meaning, Market, Model, Management, Milestones, and Money.
Visit CommonWealGet involved
Gumption is a practice.
Put it to work.
Follow the writing as it develops, and join the founder community where Ted’s ideas become hands-on venture work. Your next step starts at CommonWeal.